Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century


Book Description

Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.




Science for Environmental Protection


Book Description

In anticipation of future environmental science and engineering challenges and technologic advances, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to assess the overall capabilities of the agency to develop, obtain, and use the best available scientific and technologic information and tools to meet persistent, emerging, and future mission challenges and opportunities. Although the committee cannot predict with certainty what new environmental problems EPA will face in the next 10 years or more, it worked to identify some of the common drivers and common characteristics of problems that are likely to occur. Tensions inherent to the structure of EPA's work contribute to the current and persistent challenges faced by the agency, and meeting those challenges will require development of leading-edge scientific methods, tools, and technologies, and a more deliberate approach to systems thinking and interdisciplinary science. Science for Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead outlines a framework for building science for environmental protection in the 21st century and identified key areas where enhanced leadership and capacity can strengthen the agency's abilities to address current and emerging environmental challenges as well as take advantage of new tools and technologies to address them. The foundation of EPA science is strong, but the agency needs to continue to address numerous present and future challenges if it is to maintain its science leadership and meet its expanding mandates.




Environmental Science for Environmental Management


Book Description

Environmental Science for Environmental Management has quickly established itself as the leading introduction to environmental science, demonstrating how a more environmental science can create an effective approach to environmental management on different spatial scales. Since publication of the first edition, environmentalism has become an increasing concern on the global political agenda. Following the Rio Conference and meetings on population, social justice, women, urban settlement and oceans, civil society has increasingly promoted the cause of a more radical agenda, ranging from rights to know, fair trade, social empowerment, social justice and civil rights for the oppressed, as well as novel forms of accounting and auditing. This new edition is set in the context of a changing environmentalism and a challenged science. It builds on the popularity and applicability of the first edition and has been fully revised and updated by the existing writing team from the internationally renowned School of Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia. Environmental Science for Environmental Management is an essential text for for undergraduate students of environmental science, environmental management, planning and geography. It is invaluable supplementary reading for environmental biology and environmental chemistry courses, as well as for engineering, economics and business studies.




Towards Sustainable Development


Book Description

The book brings together twelve original essays on the meaning and implications of sustainable development. The collection assesses the theoretical debate over the concept of sustainable development, and looks at the unique experiment in applying this practically which has taken place in Norway to discover how the concept can illuminate practical policy across a wide range of fields. Topics covered include sustainable development as a global ethics; the concept of need; global and generational equity; the limits of nature; implications for economics; and the role of technology. The editors outline the logic of the approach and draw together the implications of the individual studies for a more focused and consistent application of the concept.




Our Common Future


Book Description




Dictionary of Global Climate Change


Book Description

Climate, climate change, climate fluctuations and climatic trends are only a few of the terms used today, in not only conferences, scientific symposia and workshops, but also parliaments and in discussions throughout society. To climatologists these terms may be well known; to the vast majority of people, however, they are new, and they require definition and explanation. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) inherited an interest and involvement in the studies of climate and climate change from its predecessor, the International Meteorological Organization (IMo), which was established in 1873. By 1929 the IMO had set up a Commission for Climatology to deal with matters related to climate studies. When, in 1950, the World Meteorological Organization assumed the mantle of the IMO, it retained the commission which, among other responsibilities, had already recognized the need for the definition and explana tion of terms used in climatology. It must also be said that much of what we now know about climate derives from the scientific and technical programmes co ordinated by IMO and now, to a much greater extent, by WMO. In 1979, the First World Climate Conference made an assessment of the status of knowledge of climate and climate variability, and recommended the establishment of a World Climate Programme. This recommendation was fully endorsed by the Eighth World Meteorological Congress, and the World Climate Programme was subse quently established by WMO in co-operation with the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).




Agenda 21


Book Description

Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Its purpose is an action agenda for the UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local, national, and global levels. The "21" in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st century.




Young People and the Environment


Book Description

The book analyses the knowledge, beliefs and behaviours that comprise the environmental attitudes of young people in the Asia-Pacific region and the cultural, political and educational contexts that have shaped them. The findings are based upon a questionnaire survey of over 10,000 young people together with focus group studies in India, South China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the west coast of the USA.




Human Rights Development Of Under Privileged


Book Description

The Current Situation Calls For Wider Intellectual Understanding, Deeper Moral Commitments And More Effective Policy Measures. Without Them, A Half Century Of Considerable Progress Could Be Undermined. Worse, All People Of The World Will Live On A Deteriorating Planet, And Will Increasingly Lose The Ability To Shape Their Distiny In A Coherent Way. The Charter Of Un Makes Possible A Maturing Elaboration Of The Crucial Idea Of Sustainable Development, But It Has Been Left To Us In The Last Decades Of The Twentieth Century To Try To Bring The Concept Of Development Of Fulfilment. The Editor Had Provided An Objective Critique Of The Contradictions And Consequences Of The Development And Disparities Among The Countries. There Are Some Definite Linkages Between Development And Disparities. Tackling As It Does Varies Concerns Which Are Of Growing Importance In Most Developing Countries, The Collection In This Volume, Is Of Thought Provoking Critical Reviews/Papers/Articles From India And Abroad Which Would Appeal To A Wide Range Of Readers. The Present Work Encompasses A Wide Range Of Content And Approaches In Its Ambit And As Such It Is Expected To Be Of Much Interest To A Vast Spectrum Of Scholars.